The inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,066 teaches methods and apparatus to enable an information flow between an occupant of a vehicle and an external source or recipient of information, whether the vehicle be battery powered or powered by an internal combustion engine. By example, information representing an account number is transferred from a memory within the vehicle during a recharging or refueling operation and, via a recharging or refueling station, may be transferred to another location for verification purposes. In addition, one or more solicited or unsolicited messages may be transferred between the vehicle and the station. A message transferred into the vehicle can be stored and subsequently presented in a human perceptible format, such as by a display device within the vehicle.
The following U.S. Patents disclose various types of battery charging systems: U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,617, issued on Apr. 13, 1993, entitled "Charging Station For Electric Vehicles" by Nor; U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,802, issued on Sep. 17, 1991, entitled "Charging System For A Vehicle" by Mintus et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,418, issued on Jul. 30, 1985, entitled "Microprocessor Electric Vehicle Charging and Parking Meter System Structure And Method" by Meese et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,210, issued on May 10, 1983, entitled "Apparatus And Method For Recharging An Energy Storage Device" by Wilkinson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,472, issued on Aug. 31, 1982, entitled "Apparatus And Method For Charging A Battery In A Vehicle" by Lemelson; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,644, issued on Jan. 5, 1982, entitled "Electric Vehicle Controller Adapted For Charge Station Connection" by Reimers et al.
The following two U.S. Patents disclose systems for charging a battery within a vehicle without physically contacting the vehicle: U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,319, issued on Oct. 20, 1992, entitled "Contactless Battery Charging System" by Klontz et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,328, issued on Jan. 24, 1989, entitled "Inductive Power Coupling With Constant Voltage Output" by Bolger et al.
The following U.S. Patents disclose various systems for accounting for parking fees: U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,520, issued Mar. 26, 1991, entitled "Time Accounting System In Particular For Parking Subject To Charge" by Grieu et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,097, issued Nov. 14, 1989, entitled "Park Card System For Electronic Parking Meter" by Speas; U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,540, issued on Oct. 24, 1989, entitled "System For Controlling Metered Parking" by Berthon et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,971, issued on Aug. 29, 1989 entitled "Parking Meters Capable of Being Operated Without Monetary Coins" by Chan; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,895, issued on Nov. 6, 1990, entitled "Parameter Control System For Electronic Parking Meter" by Speas.